Texas kids chalk up mixed results on test

By Francisco Vara-Ortaand Lindsay Kastner

Updated 10:47 pm, Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Almost a year after students started taking the state's new standardized test, Texas education officials have released the results for grades three through eight taken last spring — showing students generally did best on reading but fared worse on math and social studies.

Educators, policymakers and legislators anticipate that the state's accountability system is about to undergo major reform. State officials have repeatedly tweaked its latest test, criticized as confusing and too rigorous, since its debut last year.

Statewide, passing rates in reading for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, ranged from 75 percent for sixth-graders to 80 percent for eighth-graders. Passing rates in math ranged from 68 percent for grades three and four to 76 percent in grade eight.

“I know there was some anxiety, if you will, about STAAR in its first test-taking time,” Williams said. “We are starting to get going, to get running, to meet those higher, more rigorous standards in STAAR. I want to praise what you did in this first test period.”

The Texas Education Agency made public only statewide averages. With many administrators at the Austin convention, spokesmen for several San Antonio area districts said, they haven't had a chance to review the scores and start sending out the results to parents and trustees.

Northside Independent School District's passing rates in reading ranged from 77 percent for sixth-graders to 85 percent for fifth-graders, higher than the state averages. Passing rates in math ranged from 71 percent for eighth grade to 83 percent in grade five. Mirroring state trends, the eighth-grade social studies exam had the lowest score, with 62 percent passing.

“Overall, people are pleased at Northside, but with some particular grade levels and tests we feel like we need to go back and do some work,” Superintendent Brian Woods said.

To pass last spring's tests, a fifth-grader needed to correctly answer 25 of 46 reading questions and 26 of 50 math questions. That number will go up over the next few years as the state imposes increasingly difficult standards. If students at the area's three largest districts had been assessed on the toughest “final standards,” set to be in place by 2016, most would have failed.

In North East ISD, 83 percent of fifth-graders passed the reading test and 82 percent of fifth-graders passed the math test. Officials declined comment, saying they still were reviewing the data.

In SAISD, students didn't do as well but mirrored state trends, scoring from 60 percent to 69 percent on reading tests and 49 percent to 66 percent on math. The lowest scores came on the eighth-grade social studies exam with 40 percent passing.

Woods pointed out that the test was administered last school year, so many are left wondering how much help it is now, as students are already prepping for a new test.

“This is only one measure of many measures on how to assess a school or a district,” Woods said. “Uncertainty exists, especially with the Legislature meeting and the school finance court case both here in Austin that could change what these scores really mean.”

Williams reaffirmed that the TEA was drafting changes, for release in March, to the school ratings system, which in the past has heavily rested on test results.

“There is a raging conversation going on how about how many tests a youngster has to take, what courses it ought to be in,” he said. “Let's get through this transition period.”